The CRTC's chair Vicky Eatrides is also the regulator's CEO, and is responsible for steering the 700-person ship and managing its $100-million budget.Keito Newman/The Globe and Mail
Ask Vicky Eatrides, the chair of Canada’s telecommunications, internet and broadcasting regulator, what kind of political pressure she faces, and her answer is simple: “none.”
It’s perhaps the answer you would expect for a career lawyer and bureaucrat running an independent quasi-judicial tribunal, which makes decisions based on the public record and in the public interest, not on Ottawa’s say-so.
But it’s hard to imagine that the chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission hasn’t felt some heat this year.
In 2025 the commission provoked furious infighting between Canada’s largest telecom carriers, oversaw policies that risk inflaming the trade war between the U.S. and Canada, and grappled with numerous new regulatory responsibilities, while being urged by Ottawa and industry to speed up decision making and slash red tape.
Since becoming Prime Minister in March, Mark Carney has demanded that government agencies create an attractive investment environment for the private sector to spur the economy. Yet, Parliament is also asking the CRTC to enforce a spate of new regulations for foreign streamers and new protections for Canadian content and consumers.
If that wasn’t enough to contend with, Ms. Eatrides is also the CRTC’s chief executive officer, and responsible for steering the 700-person ship and managing its $100-million budget.
It’s no surprise why the running joke in Ottawa is that the best way for a CRTC chair to survive is to ensure that all stakeholders are equally unhappy.
“I hear that all the time,” she said with a laugh from her office in Gatineau. “It’s part of the job.”
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Although she describes herself as a “public servant through and through,” Ms. Eatrides didn’t come from a line of Canadian bureaucrats. She grew up in Ottawa as the daughter of two Greek immigrants who didn’t speak either official language when they first arrived. She attended high school at the same time her mother did.
Ms. Eatrides pursued her interest in competition law through an undergraduate degree in economics then law school, both at the University of Ottawa. She then spent five years as a private-sector lawyer at Bay Street firm Stikeman Elliott LLP before entering the public service.
After a series of leadership roles across the federal government, including 12 years at the Competition Bureau and a period as a top executive of its cartel and deceptive marketing branch, Ms. Eatrides took over the CRTC in 2023. Her five-year term will end in 2028.
According to telecom industry and consumer advocate observers in Ottawa, Ms. Eatrides doesn’t follow the line set by either of her two predecessors, Jean-Pierre Blais and Ian Scott – the former was seen as combative with industry and the other as unwilling to attract negative attention – instead snaking a line between them.
Ms. Eatrides she grew up in Ottawa as the daughter of two Greek immigrants who didn’t speak either official language when they first arrived in Canada.Keito Newman/The Globe and Mail
While her commission is seen as more collegial in hearings than that of previous chairs, experts said she has positioned it as a neutral finder of facts that is not swayed by political pressure.
For instance, this year, the CRTC held firm on a decision to allow incumbent telecom carriers to resell internet over certain competitors’ fibre networks. This was despite numerous legal challenges from industry, intense lobbying and an order from cabinet to reconsider the decision.
She said the commission also intends to follow through on enforcing the seven-year sunset period for the mobile network sharing framework, despite the view among some that the CRTC will prolong it. Under this rule, companies that resell cell service using competitors’ networks will lose access to government-set wholesale rates after 2030.
For companies such as Quebecor Inc. QBR-B-T, which has been expanding its Freedom Mobile brand using the wholesale framework in addition to favourable network-sharing agreements made with Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-B-T, this could mean higher access costs in the long term. Ms. Eatrides said she has seen “some” network building by the telecom companies who stand to lose the mandated access.
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Not everyone agrees that the CRTC is operating freely enough from political whims. But most agree on one point: It is still not meeting expectations when it comes to the speed of decision-making.
While the CRTC is viewed by many as a model for transparency in public consultation, this process often bogs it down. The delays predate Ms. Eatrides, but continue to rankle both telecom giants and consumer advocacy groups.
Eight years after the CRTC first moved to modernize the 9-1-1 system, for instance, the agency has yet to enforce the initiative, and recently delayed the deadline until 2027. And the CRTC has yet to finalize prices for fibre wholesale two years after introducing the framework and a year after setting interim rates.
Non-profits including the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, for their part, have said the CRTC takes months to approve payment for their participation in hearings, putting them in vulnerable financial positions. The PIAC acts on behalf of consumer interests in regulated industries such as telecommunications, financial services and privacy.
Ms. Eatrides agrees there is room to improve the speed of decision making. She said the CRTC has reduced the backlog of Part 1 Proceedings – applications brought before it – and closed 50 per cent more of those applications this year compared with 2024, although the CRTC could not provide precise figures. Ms. Eatrides said the agency is taking steps to relieve the regulatory burden, such as dropping annual renewal requirements and consolidating consultations.
In addition to its oversight of telecommunications and broadcasting – two historically disparate categories that have converged in recent years, complicating regulatory matters – the CRTC is now also responsible for regulating the Online News Act and the Online Streaming Act.
In 2024, the CRTC ruled that streamers such as Netflix and Spotify will be required to devote 5 per cent of Canadian revenues to producing content in the country. This year, streaming giants took their complaints to the Federal Court of Appeal, calling the laws protectionist and arguing they would worsen trade negotiations and could lead to retaliation.
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The courts have issued a stay on those cost requirements, but in the meantime, the CRTC continues to deliberate on how these companies could be subject to the laws. These additional responsibilities have led some to question whether the current structure of the CRTC is still fit for the task. While Ms. Eatrides maintains that it is, others say no.
According to Keldon Bester, the executive director of the think tank Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, the current model of “just bolting things on is not working.” It leaves the CRTC without a clear prioritization plan and asks it to adapt to the modern day, while leaving the underlying, decades-old structure unchanged.
Ms. Eatrides isn’t blind to the challenge ahead. She said that modernizing the Broadcast Act will be the biggest undertaking in her time left as Commissioner.
And while some buzz has been circulating in Ottawa that she is being considered for the top job heading the Competition Bureau, open since the Dec. 17 departure of former commissioner Matthew Boswell, Ms. Eatrides said she currently has no intention of cutting her CRTC term short.
“I have a lot of work to do still,” she said. “I’m completely focused on the CRTC.”